


Mer(e)ly Human

by Scarheart99789



Series: With the ocean in our arms, kiss your eyes and kiss your palms [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Little Mermaid Elements, Multi, all the setters are siblings, like Ariel's sisters, probably going to be slow build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 22:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarheart99789/pseuds/Scarheart99789
Summary: The one where Oikawa Tooru is an idiot and drinks things that he shouldn't.(but then again it leads him to a grumpy Prince so maybe it isn't that bad)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow I'm. I'm so shocked that I finally got this up? Honestly the thing that finally pushed me to do it was the fact that it's July 20th and it's Oikawa's birthday so obviously I had to get this out and into the world.
> 
> Big shoutout to ao3 user Taitsu who brainstormed this fic with me in the comments of her own fic (this idea started February 28th of 2016 I'm. I'm so shocked right now why did it take me this long) but thank you so much!!! Ny'all should definitely go check out their stuff I cried a lot <3
> 
> So proud! It finally happened! I hope you enjoy. Now that the first chapter is up I should be able to push myself to write more

It was normally a pretty quiet place, down under the sea. Or at least, that's what most would think. In reality, it was a loud place, thriving with energy and excitable underwater creatures ranging from snails to merpeople. One merman in particular was out on this particular morning, swimming out to the open see with a mind for adventure and just a strong need to get away from his family. Being a young prince could be a pain in the fins, after all.

His name was Tooru, and he was the third oldest among his many siblings. 9, in fact. There were 8 other siblings that Tooru had to deal with, and they could be annoying; it was no surprise that this prince often found pleasure in sneaking out of the palace just to swim around in the open water, occasionally finding human trinkets along the ocean floor or just fooling around with his two closest friends. Of course, they were actually supposed to be his royal advisors, but they really ended up getting him into even more trouble than he would end up getting into alone, honestly. Issei and Takahiro were pretty horrible guards or advisors, whatever they were, if you asked Tooru.

Who, speak of the devil, here they come now, swimming after him with matching grins.

"Ah, Prince Tooru~! You know you shouldn't be swimming around all alone; what if one of those sharks get ahold of you, hmm?" teased the first one, Takahiro. He was a fairly nice looking merman, even if he was lacking in personality. His hair and tail were both coral-coloured, though his tail had little streaks of teal along a few of the scales.

"Oh yes, that'd simply be a disaster!" Issei chimed in, easily swimming in front of Tooru and turning to swim backwards so he could send him a lazy grin without having to look over his shoulder. Jerk. He had black hair and _atrocious_ eyebrows, but looking past those things he was also fairly attractive. His tail was almost pitch black, like the darkest parts of the ocean, but it had subtle hints of green in the right lighting.

Overall, they were just really pretty mermen that had to act as Tooru's personal guards. And they royally sucked at it.

For example, just last month he’d been captured by a shark. A mershark, mind you; real sharks were intelligent, but not enough to capture a merperson. His name was Tetsurou, if he remembered correctly, and honestly he wasn't even that bad. He'd known Tetsurou pretty much his whole life, and he’d only been captured because Tetsu wanted a way into the castle to bother one of his younger siblings. Troublesome, yes, but not actual trouble. There weren't many other mersharks around outside of Tetsurou that lurked around here though, so there technically weren’t any _real_ threats around, which meant technically Issei and Takahiro didn't need to be here, but their presence was nice regardless.

"I hope you both know how annoying you are, and that I detest your company," he complained, rolling his eyes at the wounded look Issei ended up shooting him before he suddenly stopped swimming and just kind of floated downwards while clutching at his heart. Always one for dramatics.

Seeing this as a small distraction, Tooru waited until Takahiro was also caught up in the dramatics, swimming down to the other to hold him in his arms and cry about how cruel a prince's words could be, before suddenly dashing away as quickly as he could, grinning to himself at the pair’s squawks as they hurried to try and catch up to him.

After all, he wasn't just out here to swim off his hatred towards a certain younger sibling! No way, there were rumors about an old mercreature's lair somewhere nearby, one that he hadn't been near in years; it was rumored to hold some kind of magic. That could definitely prove to be a lot of fun.

\-----

It took him the better half of an hour, but he finally ended up finding the lair, beaming proudly as he hovered in front of the entrance before glancing over his shoulder at his bickering guards.

"Well, we're here! Maybe we'll find something I can use against Tobio-Chan in here!" he claimed excitedly, giving a feral grin and darting inside with the complaining guards following close behind.

The place had definitely been abandoned for years, covered in seaweed and kelp and seafoam. _Gross._ Either way, it seemed like a cool place and he was definitely excited to see what they could find in here; he could tell Issei and Takahiro were excited about it as well, no matter how much they seemed to be complaining.

Tooru ran his fingers through the gunk covering the walls of the cave, a bit awestuck at how the sand collected like dust did on the old human things he would sometimes come across on a little island near here. The island wasn't big enough for people to come and live on, but occasionally younger people would boat over and hang out for a day or so and then head back. Tooru always loved collecting whatever the humans would leave there. (His brothers also liked collecting them, so it was usually a race to see who could collect the trinkets faster.)

That aside, the old cave was actually super neat, and along the back walls there seemed to be bottles lined up and tucked into crevices. They were all covered in sand, but when Tooru took one off the shelf and dusted it off, it became obvious that they were still full of unknown potions ranging in a multitude of colors.

Realizing that the bottles were full and that Tooru really looked like he was going to start randomly opening them, Takahiro and Issei shared a look before swimming over and grabbing the obnoxiously bright green bottle from Tooru's hands and pretending to study it closely.

"You know, Oiks, this really doesn't seem like such a good idea," Issei started, brows furrowing before Takahiro picked up for him.

"How about we bring some back to the castle? Let Takeda-San check them out? You know he excels with potions and things; I think he'd love to check these out," the coral haired merman advised, glancing up to see Tooru looking like he was actually considering it.

"That sounds like a good idea. Take-Chan would probably love to check these out," Tooru muttered, rolling his eyes at the matching sighs of relief that came from his companions. They were probably right to be worried about these potions, since their creator caused so many problems to the ocean in the past, but really. There was a reason Takeda didn't want them playing here, and Tooru couldn't just leave without opening one to himself, right? Right. That would just go against his natural curiosity.

So, while Takahiro and Issei gathered up potions in their arms and got ready to go, Tooru picked up one particularly beautiful fuchsia pink potion and then quickly opened it and downed it without a second thought.

When nothing happened at first, he shrugged, gently setting it down and moving to gather other potions to bring back to the castle as well, mentally thanking the spirits of the sea that neither of his partners here had watched him do that. If they had he would've been in so much trouble. Probably would have been banned from leaving the castle for the next year at the least.

"Alright, time to get these home to Takeda-San. Last one home is a rotten kelp!" Takahiro taunted, darting out of the cave with a forceful flick of his tail and a cheerful laugh. Issei and Tooru both gave annoyed squawks before heading out after him, complaining about unfair headstarts.

\-----

About half way back home, at the mini island earlier mentioned, Tooru couldn't help but feel like something was just a little bit. Off. His tail was getting incredibly itchy, and he kept losing his breath while chasing after his companions. Tooru was usually a strong swimmer, one of the fastest out of his siblings, so he couldn't help but wonder if this was because of the potion he had drank. Was it just a generally weird thing that could be used as a dumb prank? Slip it into someone's drink and they'd have to deal with an itchy tail and shortness of breath? Man, if only he had kept some of it; it would've been a great pranking item.

He quickly realized that wasn't just it, though. Suddenly Tooru stopped swimming, dropping the other potions he had as he suddenly reached up to grab at his throat, eyes widening in surprise. The gills etched into the sides of his neck seemed smaller all of a sudden. This wasn't just him being short of breath, his gills were disappearing. The first of the potions from his hands hit the ground and shattered, the inky purple liquid beginning to fill the water like squid ink.

The spilt potion caught Issei's eye, and when he turned around in surprise, he shouted for Takahiro to 'get his ass back here or else'. He quickly swam down to the ocean floor - which wasn't that far, since they were swimming pretty deep down - and placed down the potions, quickly heading over to the Prince. Issei was used to Tooru's pranks, but this didn't seem like another trick. There was no way he'd go through all that effort of going to that cave only to drop all the potions he had gathered and then pretend like he couldn't breathe.

Getting closer, Issei let out a choked noise as he glanced down at the Prince's tail. Tooru's tail was a real beauty, even among his royal siblings, a beautiful shade of turquoise, with scales that would shine cyan in some places and a dark teal in the right lighting. However, at the moment it was looking dull and almost dead, in a sense. It almost looked like it was going to rip right along the center.

Takahiro was now at Issei's side, having put down his potions and saved the potions Tooru had dropped, setting them down carefully so they wouldn't break. Together they grabbed Tooru by the armpits, swimming up as fast as they could. The Prince kept flapping his mouth at them, looking like he was trying to get out frantic words, but no actual noises escaped him outside of a high pitched whine.

Soon enough they broke the surface of the water, dragging him along to the little island and Tooru began sobbing. He was letting out little choked off noises, and when he finally moved his hands the other two took in sharp breaths. His gills were completely sealed up, no longer fluttering like they usually did when they were out in the air. A dark crimson filled up the water around them, but none of them were willing to address it. While it would probably attract a shark, they really weren't that common in the area; Issei had his hopes set on Testurou sniffing it out and coming to check out the scene so that they could send him to the palace for help.

Once they were on the island, they gently laid the Prince on the shore, risking a look at his tail. There was a torn, bloody mess of scales where there once were beautiful blues and greens, stuck to - wait. Leaning closer, Takahiro gently brushed away some of the scales before sucking in yet another sharp breath. Underneath the peeling scales was a set of human legs. Tooru had human legs, and his gills were gone. Looking up at Issei he saw the same shock and horror reflected on the younger merman’s face and gave a small shake of his head.

Tooru had managed to pass out from the shock and pain of this whole situation. While Issei pulled himself more up onto the shore to comfortingly run his fingers through the Prince's hair, Takahiro pushed away from the little island to try and find some help.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Idk meet some other Princes. The plot is going somewhere next chapter

Back in the castle, the oldest prince Koushi couldn’t help the heavy sigh that escaped from his lungs. He felt like he was physically deflating a little at realizing that Tooru had swum off again, but there really wasn’t anything the gray haired merman could do at the moment. After all, Issei and Takahiro were also missing. So assuming they were all together, Koushi didn’t doubt the abilities of the two advisors to protect his younger brother. After all, he hadn’t injured himself as badly since they became his advisors three years ago, so that had to count for something.

So, with Tooru out and about, _again,_ Koushi had to deal with the rest of the castle. Which roughly translated to him having to find ways to make sure the younger princes were all effectively entertained so they didn’t break something or end up holing up somewhere, not to be found for the next week. They all certainly were unique, but Koushi didn’t have time for this today. He was actually supposed to be learning how to mix some healing potions with Take-Chan so he could take care of his siblings the next time one of them idiotically ate something that they obviously shouldn’t have just because they were dared to or it ‘looked interesting’.

(Tooru was the worst of the bunch. He always tried to eat and drink things he knew he shouldn’t. Too much of an insatiable curiosity.)

A sudden chime of laughter cut off his thought; out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of an obnoxiously bright orange tail darting around a corner, and let out a pained groan. Why did it always have to fall on him? Why couldn’t Eita have been the oldest? Actually, nevermind; that would be a horrible idea. The only other sibling that would be able to handle the position Koushi filled was Keiji, but there was no way he was going to ask him for help at the moment when he was probably off reading.

So, with another sigh, Koushi headed after the orange tail, following it around a few more corners before flicking his tail to speed up a bit and grab it with a forced smile. The owner of said tail yelped before whipping around with a terrified expression on his face, and slowly curled up to look even smaller than he was. Hinata Shouyou wasn’t a bad guy, per say, but he did cause quite a few problems around the palace. Especially when he was playing games with Tobio.

(It was fine for them to be friends! It was fine that Tobio got along so well with his young guard-in-training! But for Poseidon’s sake, they needed to stop playing tag in the hallways.)

“Hello, Shouyou. Fancy seeing you here,” Koushi said brightly, enjoying watching the colour drain from his face. While Koushi was generally a very sweet merman, he did take pride in his ability to intimidate most of the mers he met when he wanted to. That aside, he took a quick moment to study the young merman's tail. Since he was still young, his tail had a bit of growing to do, but it was clear that it was going to become a truly beautiful tail. It was bright orange, speckled with black and white patches here and there. The fins were almost translucent, and had a bit more of a red tint to them. It would probably become a bit less obnoxiously bright when he got older since the bright colours were to make the younger mers look poisonous to any predators looking to snack on them, and he wouldn’t be needing that false safety anymore in a few more years. Truly lovely, and he sincerely hoped the young guard-in-training would stay with the royal family long enough for Koushi to see it.

However, back to the issue at hand.

“W-well you s-see!” Shouyou started, eyes comically wide as he stuttered over his words while flailing his arms around a bit. “Tobio! Tobio was swimming around all _whoosh_ yesterday while Kenma was all _fwoom_ and so today I asked Tobio if he could show me how to swim that fast but then he ran away! S-so I was following after him!” The young merman managed to speak in one whole breath, eyes sparkling with sudden excitement, all the fear wiped right off his face as if it was never there. Shouyou never ceased to amaze. Although…

“Well if that’s the case, do you even know where Tobio went?” Koushi prompted, watching as Shouyou froze in abject horror before dramatically sinking down to sit on the floor of the palace hallway, Koushi letting go of his tail as he did so. Well, that answered that question. “What about Kenma? Maybe you could ask him?”

At the suggestion Shouyou’s face light up once more, and he practically vibrated with sudden excitement. “That’s a great idea, Koushi-San! I know where he’s hiding today too! I passed by him earlier. Though, if you find Tobio tell him it’s rude to just ignore me like that!” the young guard-in-training shouted after offering a bow and heading back in the direction he had just come from.

 

With another deep sigh, Koushi gently shook his head before continuing on down the hall. Well, at least it was never a dull day around here.

\-----

Humming gently, yet another young prince was swimming absently outside of the castle. However, unlike his older brother Tooru, Shigeru didn’t have a set destination in mind. No, instead he enjoyed just swimming around in circles around the palace to clear his head. It was intimidating, to say the least. Living in the palace, he means. Almost everyone knew how fond of taking in ‘strays’ the King was, so it also wasn’t really that much of a surprise to learn that most of the Prince’s were actually his adopted sons. Only Koushi and Eita were of his actual blood, but the King never chose to favour any child over the others.

Suddenly there was a shriek, and then Shigeru was collided with. He and the other merman did a few dizzying loops in the water before they caught their balance again, and it was then that Shigeru realized who had run into him.

“Ah, Takahiro-San! Where is Tooru?” he questioned, craning his neck to look past the coral-haired merman to try and spot his brother. Tooru was Shigeru’s favourite sibling, and with that he spent a lot of time paying close attention to the brunette. Which is why he was so surprised to see Takahiro here without his brother or Issei. Which could only mean trouble.

“Shigeru! Oh Shigeru thank Poseidon it’s you I ran into I need you to help me find Takeda-San or Koushi or _someone_ because Tooru is in trouble and I don’t know what to do!” Takahiro blubbering, obviously crying even though most couldn’t tell down here in the ocean.

(Everyone had a tell though. Takahiro’s bottom lip trembled when he was crying. Shigeru was good at paying attention to these little details.)

Eyes widening, Shigeru nodded in acknowledgement before heading back to the palace, Takahiro close behind. Hopefully Tooru wasn’t too badly injured, but at the same time it was hopeless wishing for something like that. Takahiro wouldn’t be this broken up about something that wasn’t a major issue. So, with that thought in mind the two began hunting through the hallways to either find Koushi or Takeda Ittetsu.

\-----

Meanwhile, back on the beach, Issei was _freaking the fuck out._ For starters, now that Tooru was slowly coming back into consciousness, he apparently couldn’t talk. Issei frantically tried to lip read, but Takahiro had always been better at that so he couldn’t catch more than half of what Tooru was attempting to say. Something about sea anemone? Pepperoni? Hell, Issei had no idea what he was saying at all; he couldn’t do this.

Gently, he brushed his fingers along the closed up gills on the side of Tooru’s neck, tears brimming in his eyes. Maybe these were why he couldn’t talk anymore? Hopefully he’d be able to figure out how to speak without breathing through his gills if he’s stuck in this form for too long. What if Takeda can’t fix him? What if he has to join the humans? Fear strikes through Issei, and suddenly the tears are overflowing and falling over Tooru, causing the Prince to blubber in surprise and try to sit up to comfort his advisor.

Issei, however, takes the initiative and falls forward to shove his face at the junction of Tooru’s shoulder and his neck, clutching onto the younger merman with hiccuped sobs. Well, he couldn’t even really think of Tooru as a merman at the moment, what with his human legs and lack of any gills. Hopefully if they can’t change him back some humans come from the mainland soon and find him. Hopefully they take him back with them. Hopefully the young Prince will be able to find a new life and find ways to come back to the ocean to visit them whenever he can. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully.

It’s then that a splash and a shout catches Issei’s attention. He jolts up in surprise, turning his tearstained face back towards the water hoping that it’s Takahiro or Tetsurou. However, he then winces at noticing the shape of a small rowboat, and what appears to be 3 people. One of them is yelling at Issei and Tooru, obviously surprised that there are other already on the island, while the other two begin rowing faster.

Turning back to Tooru with more tears brimming his eyes, Issei leans down to gently brush his lips against his Prince’s forehead. The brunet catches on rather easily, and reaches out to squeeze Issei’s hand before offering him a small smile. Not all humans around here are so nice to mermaids, so it’s for Issei’s safety that he leaves now before the humans get here. Before they can catch him. So, Tooru watches sadly as his bushy-browed advisor slips back into the water, before then letting his eyes drift up to the sky with a melancholic smile on his face. Hopefully these humans are nice. _Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tooru meets the Prince + others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow look i live! it's only been like,,,,, a month,,,,,, but still  
> i ended up moving and so i didn't have a lot of tie to just sit around and use my laptop, and even once i was able to i haven't had good muse for a while, but here it is! chapter 3. finally. i wrote so much more than i thought i would. hopefully the chapters keep getting longer c':

It’s strange, how seemingly ordinary days could end up so… extraordinary.

The young prince of Seijoh, Iwaizumi Hajime, had spent his morning just like any other, woken up by one of the staff bringing him his morning coffee. Tadashi was probably the nicest person that worked here at the castle, and when Hajime was king he swore he was going to give the kid a higher position. He deserved more than being a glorified errand boy.

So Hajime had his morning coffee, thanking the boy and sending him back out before he got dressed for the day, heading down to the kitchen to get an actual meal in his stomach. There he ran into two members of the Royal Guard, Sawamura Daichi and Bokuto Koutarou, who he tended to spend a lot of time training with. Hajime was sure that Daichi would make a great Captain sometime in the future. Koutarou seemed like he wasn’t the best fit for the Royal Guard sometimes, but the eccentric young man had an uncanny seriousness about him sometimes that made him a good candidate for working so close to Hajime in the future.

After eating, the trio headed out to the courtyard to practice some sword fighting, where Koutarou sprung the question on them. He wanted to head out to the little island today to see if he could get a glimpse of any cool creatures that would swim close to the surface out there. This wasn’t uncommon, since the three of them were often rowing out to the island to swim around and try and find proof of the strange humanoid creatures that were rumored to live around here. Mermaids, they were called, but yet none of them had ever actually seen one.

(Koutarou claims to have seen one once, and ever since they had made regular outings to try and see if he had actually or if he had just seen a dolphin or something.)

So here they were, the trio all squished into the old rowboat they liked to use and heading out to the little island. They couldn’t really fit more people in their little boat if they tried, so when they would have other people come along with them they often ended up having Hajime or Daichi jump out and swim alongside the boat and help it move faster instead of trying to fit them all in it.

(They once tried to fit the three of them in the boat as well as one of the younger guards, Kentarou. They didn’t even get even halfway before the boat tipped and the poor kid almost drowned. He wasn’t a very good swimmer.)

Once the island was in sight, Koutarou let out a shout of surprise before reaching back at them (he won rock paper scissors and got to scout while Hajime and Daichi were stuck rowing) and slapping excitedly at Hajime’s arm. “Look! Look! There’s someone there already!”

Sure enough, there seemed to be two figures on the island, one lying down, covered in red and green (swimming trunks, maybe?), whereas the other seemed to have black trunks and was leaning over the other. Hajime couldn’t really tell from here, but he seemed almost like he was worried.

“Hey! Is everything alright?” Koutarou shouts, the oars splashing in the water with his words, and he watched the second boy jolt in surprise and whip around to look at them, before turning back to the one laying down. Hajime and Daichi worked to row faster to get to the strangers when they stopped in surprise.

The one with the black trunks wasn’t actually in swimming gear at all. Instead, after leaning down to the other boy, he moved to get away from the little island, and Hajime realized what it really was. The lower half of the guy’s body, in place of legs, was a black tail, and Hajime almost dropped his oar into the water in his shock. He faintly heard Koutarou whisper “holy shit”, and that’s what snapped him out of it.

Hajime turned to see Daichi was in just as much shock, and reached out to nudge his shoulder. “Come on, let’s get over there and see if that guy’s okay,” Hajime muttered, receiving a sharp nod before the two of them started rowing again. Koutarou seemed to still be yelling out to the stranger lying on the island, but he didn’t seem to be getting any response. Hopefully it was actually a mermaid rather than a siren. There were more rumors about sirens than mermaids, and that’s because there’s more proof of vicious fish people than there is of kind ones. There didn’t seem to be a ship or anything nearby, so Hajime wasn’t quite sure how a siren would’ve lured someone out here like this, so fingers crossed that it was just a mermaid helping someone out.

Eventually the trio managed to get to the island, and Koutarou was quick to jump off and splash through the shallow water that surrounded the island in order to get to the strange boy. After making sure the boat wasn’t going to be able to just float away while they were focused on trying to help this stranger, Hajime and Daichi also rushed over to help.

Koutarou glanced up at them and offered a quick smile. “Well, he still seems to have a pulse, so I guess we made it in time,” the white haired male offered, chuckling dryly. Well, at least Hajime wasn’t the only one that had assumed he was a siren.

As they approached, Hajime couldn’t help but let his gaze drift down to the other boy’s - man’s? - legs. Now that they were close enough, it was a bit easier to figure out what was all over them. Even if it did seem bizarre. Hajime crouched down, and reached out to poke at one of the things that looked like scales, before inhaling sharply as they easily shifted out of place. One of the shiny scales ended up sticking to his finger, and Hajime pulled back to inspect it.

It wasn’t hard to assume that all the blood around him was blood, but none of this seemed to make sense. His legs were covered in scales and blood, and none of that was natural.

Hajime slowly turned to eye up the strange boy, and was startled to realize that he was staring back at him already. Koutarou had shifted to rest the stranger's head on his lap, and seemed to be running his fingers through his hair in a calming way. Daichi was trying to talk to him and ask him questions, but he didn’t even look like he was pretending to pay attention.

Huffing gently, Hajime lifted his hand with the scale now in his palm, and watched as the other boy's eyes flickered to it with a grimace before quickly looking back up to Hajime’s face.

“What is this? Why are you covered in these and blood?” he gently questioned and watched as the brunet scrunched up his nose before opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. After a few seconds Hajime realized he was trying to talk, but he couldn’t work out what exactly he was trying to say.

The stranger began gesturing wildly. He went from waving his arms, to miming drinking something, before then angrily pointing from the water to his legs and back again, before then crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks. Like a child throwing a tantrum. It was almost adorable, but Hajime very much refused to see it as such.

After a few more moments, Daichi gently nudged Hajime before gesturing towards the stranger’s neck. “Look, what are those marks?” he softly inquired, and Hajime couldn’t deny that he was suddenly intrigued by the marks as well. They seemed to be just thin lines, but there was a good chance they were scars or scratches.

Hesitantly, he reached out to try and touch one, before then shouting in surprise as the brunet suddenly thrashed. He managed to jolt away from Koutarou, attempting to scramble back a bit and move his feet as one, but he ended up slipping on a stray piece of seaweed. Hajime ended up standing back up and holding up his hands, suddenly knocked out of his surprise.

“Whoa! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you! I was just curious, I should’ve asked,” Hajime exclaimed in an attempt to calm down the brunet, receiving a glare for his efforts, but he did manage to stop trying to get away, so that was a success.

Hajime slowly crouched back down to be eye level with the stranger again, the latter propping himself up on his elbows with a scowl on his face. “Hey, I guess that was really rude of me. I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m Hajime, and these two behind me are Koutarou and Daichi. What’s your name? If you can write that’d be greatly appreciated.”

The brunet puffed out his cheeks childishly again, eyes flickering from Hajime to the two behind him, before then glancing down at the sand beside him. Shakily he traced out the starting of some sloppy Japanese characters, before then scratching them out. He tried again with a few other languages that he seemed a bit more confident in, but Hajime wasn’t able to figure out any of them before he got to English. The letters were clearly something the young man seemed comfortable with, which probably meant he might not even be from around here. Jeez, the siren thing was becoming more and more realistic.

The words that the brunet traced out on the ground read out 5 clear letters. T O O R U. Hajime read them over few times, before looking back up at the brunet. “Your name is Tooru?” At the excited looking nod he got in response, Hajime let out a quick sigh of relief. It would’ve taken him forever if he tried to read the others lips to figure this out.

“Well then, Tooru. I really think we should get you cleaned off a bit. Do you mind if we carry you to the water to check over your legs?” he asked, receiving a confused look before the other looked down at his legs, letting out a surprised sound. Tooru reached down, and gently ran his fingers through the mess on his legs for himself before scrunching up his nose again and looking back to Hajime. They held eye contact for a few moments before Tooru gave a small nod and turned back to focusing on the blood and scales on his palm.

Hajime and Daichi slowly approached Tooru, and Hajime leaned down to hook his arms around his neck and waist, while Daichi went for his legs after shooting him a betrayed look. Well, Hajime wasn’t going to be getting his shirt covered in blood.

Slowly but surely they managed to shuffle back towards the water and gently lowered Tooru down. Daichi then backed off with his tongue out as he moved to take off his shirt in disgust while Hajime rolled his eyes and did the same - making sure to toss it at Koutarou’s confused face - before splashing into the shallow water surrounding the little island to crouch down and begin washing away the blood and scales.

After a closer inspection, there didn’t seem to be any injuries, so Hajime couldn’t really figure out why he was covered in so much blood. He also couldn’t figure out why there were so many scales, since from what he could see of the mermaid - siren? - they had seen leave, he didn’t have scales this colour. Tooru stayed mostly quiet while Hajime brushed away the scales and blood, only letting out a small squeak and frantically reaching out to physically pull his legs up to his chest once Hajime started getting close to - oh.

He had been so focused on making sure there weren’t any injuries that he had let the fact slip his mind that this completely stranger was completely naked under all that blood and stuff slip his mind. Hajime felt the blood rush to his face, frantically looking over at the other two for answers. Koutarou quickly scurried back to the boat to grab at the little bag he had filled with snacks for the day, returning with an extra pair of trunks. Thank the Heavens for that.

(They once had an incident where Koutarou had slipped on something and ended up ripping his trunks up the side of one leg - along with said leg - and since then had been bringing extra trunks in case something like that ever happened again. It had been humiliating to get back to the castle with his leg bleeding and his clothes falling off.)

Hajime gratefully accepted them, reaching out to offer them to Tooru. He seemed confused with what to do, and so with a sigh Hajime explained. “They’re clothes, y’know? Come on. Come into the water more and wash off the rest, and then slip these on. Like how mine are, yeah? I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to,” he promised and watched as Tooru slowly scooched himself more into the water without drawing his knees back down. The brunet then snatched the shorts from Hajime’s hand, then went a little bit deeper and looked back at him in confusion once more.

He could feel a headache building, and Daichi and Koutarou laughing in the background was certainly _not helping,_ but regardless, Hajime apporached Tooru again and gently took the trunks back into his own hands. “Alright, we’re going to make you stand up, and you’re going to step into the legs and I’ll pull them up quickly. I won’t even look, alright?” With that, Hajime reached down and moved Tooru’s arm over his shoulder, before gently lifting him up and shifting his gaze to look down at the water to focus on making sure he got his legs in properly, before then pulling them up.

(Daichi and Koutarou were complete assholes. They made sure to whistle and laugh while Hajime helped, and if Hajime didn’t end up punching them, from the angrily embarrassed look on Tooru’s face, _he_ was definitely going to. Probably would even if Hajime already did just to get the point across.)

Hajime offered Tooru a small smile, and the brunet blinked in surprise before his face shifted into a gentle smile, though his cheeks were still flaming. The two then slowly made their way back to Daichi and Koutarou, and Hajime couldn’t help but feel a sting of annoyance that the stranger was taller than him. Just great. (Though that also meant it wasn’t as awkward with Tooru’s arm slung over his shoulder, seeing how the brunet had refused to move away yet.)

“Jeez Hajime, why do you always have it so easy with the cute ones,” Koutarou complained before yelping and darting out of the way as Hajime and Tooru both reached forward to grab at him. Daichi simply laughed at the ordeal, before shattering their little moment.

“So, how are we getting back? The boat’s not big enough for four.”

\-----

Issei gnawed on his lip anxiously as Takahiro finally made his way back. He had Koushi and Shigeru with him, which didn’t surprise Issei much.

“Issei? Issei what’s wrong? Where’s Tooru?” the coral haired merman asked, and Issei could only weakly gesture up to the surface. Following the motion, the three newcomers turned to see what Issei was trying to point out.

There was a little boat, and while they didn’t have the best view from down here, it was obvious that one of the people walking over to the boat was Tooru. Wait, walking?

Koushi quickly turned to Takahiro, rage burning in his eyes. “You idiot! You couldn’t have told me this was what was wrong with him? Where is his tail?! Why does he have legs? What did you do?” he demanded, shaking Takahiro by his shoulders while he tried to fight off tears.

(Koushi had a terrible habit of curling his upper lip when he cried, and it was twitching enough that the other three were shocked he wasn’t screwing up his words yet.)

Issei quietly reached out to place his hand on Koushi’s arm, and that’s when the older male finally seemed to break. His shoulders were shaking as he curled in on himself, his tail fin slapping him in the face, but he didn’t seem to care. The two explained that they didn’t really know what he did, but they assumed Tooru had been an idiot and drank one of the potions they had been trying to bring back to the castle.

Shigeru made himself noticed then, letting out a small snort before looking back up to watch as Tooru climbed into the boat with two of the other strangers. “Well, he is an idiot. Hopefully Ittetsu-Chan will be able to get him back to normal soon, but I doubt those humans are going to be trying to cause him harm,” he casually stated, watching as the third one pushed the boat off the shore before moving to just swim alongside the boat, pushing it from the back while the other two rowed.

This got Koushi to look back up, and he quietly studied the man in the water. He had rather short black hair and seemed to be a strong swimmer. Not that Koushi cared, or anything. It was just something he happened to pick up on, is all. Slowly he swam up a little higher, and couldn’t help the next weak whimper he let out.

Tooru had spotted him, and gave a bright grin before reaching over the edge of the boat to gently dip his fingers into the water, and gave a small wave. Koushi whined before waving back, watching as the spiky haired male in the boat eyed Tooru curiously before going back to rowing. Well, hopefully they’d take good care of him for now.

“Well boys, I guess we should head home. Where are those potions you dropped? We should get them to Ittetsu and get him to start working on a way to help Tooru immediately.”

**Author's Note:**

> This will also be part of a series because I really wanna do little side stories with the other pairings that aren't main ships for this because I love them all so much and they clearly deserve more than just being side characters. If at all through this fic you have any ideas for a side story with any pairing mentioned, feel free to comment it and I'll consider making something for your idea!  
> (wow lemme post the pairings here because I didn't wanna put them all in right now because that's just mean and they're not in yet and not main so I'd feel bad. But this will have/hint at Daisuga, Bokuaka, Kuroken, Semiten, Kyouhaba, Kiyachi, Asanoya, Kagehina, Tsukiyama, Ukatake, Izukou (Izumi x Kouji. I know, what a rare pair), Matsuhana, and most likely Ennotana. Might be willing to write other random things but like. If you wanna know things about any other characters before I get them in the fic, feel free to ask questions I've had this au growing for over a year I need to talk about it)


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